exhibitions

Syncope

April 24 through June 6, 2015

The exhibition Syncope pairs new works by regional artists Rachel Beamer and Achala Wali.

In medicine, the noun syncope (SINGkuhpee) refers to a fleeting loss of consciousness; in phonetics, it’s when sounds or letters are not pronounced aloud (probably becomes probly). In the photographs of Rachel Beamer and the abstract pencil-and-ink drawings of Achala Wali, it’s when the compositions hint at elements not present—the shadow but not what casts it; the suggestion of a mapped landscape without the real-world analogue; intriguing visual echoes of things felt but unseen.

Wali’s approach is both intuitive and pre-conceived, bringing forth buried thoughts and memories of landscapes from her Indian childhood. She uses pencil, pen and ink, brushes and sometimes pastel and acrylics, in non-traditional ways. Color is contained within the black or white field, used to effect subtle moments and passages or sparks of feeling.

Beamer’s recent work employs white fabric to create compressed, vascular landscapes. Captured when the light is angled and shadows are long, proportion and scale become ambiguous. Sites are reduced to shades of blue and white and are transformed by the lines and shapes they cast and assume.

Syncope opens on Friday, April 24 with a public reception from 6 to 9 p.m. It is on view at Heights Arts through Saturday, June 6, during normal gallery hours.

Related Programming

Artist Talk + Ekphrastic Poetry

Thursday, May 21 7:00 p.m., Heights Arts Gallery, Free

Hear artists Rachel Beamer and Achala Wali speak about their work and its evolution. Invited regional poets will also read original poems created in response to select works on view.